My vouch against you, and my place i'the state That bear in them one and the self-same tongue, Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die : [Exit. Enter Duke, CLAUDIO, and Provost. Duke. So, then you hope of pardon from lord Angelo? Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, But only hope: I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die. Duke. Be absolute for death: either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life,If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art, (Servile to all the skiey influences,) That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st, Claud. I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find, I seek to die; Perpetual durance? Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's fastidity you had, To a determined scope. Claud. But in what nature? Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to't) Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked. Claud. Let me know the point. Isab. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Lest thou a feverous life should'st entertain, And six or seven winters more respect 9 Resident. In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,- Claud. O, heavens! it cannot be. Isab. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank offence, Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile. Duke. [To CLAUDIO, aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath past between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures; she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive: Thou shalt not do't. I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be So to offend him still: This night's the time, Claud. Isub. O, were it but my life, Thanks, dear Isabel. Claud. That thus can make him bite the law by the nose, Isab. Which is the least? Claud. If it were damnable, he, being so wise, true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready. Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: Farewell. [Exit CLAUDIO. Re-enter Provost. Provost, a word with you. Prov. What's your will, father? Duke. That now you are come you will be gone Leave me a while with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by my Death is a fearful thing. company. Isab. And shamed life a hateful. To what we fear of death. Isab. Alas! alas! [Erit Provost. Prov. In good time. Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodness that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness: but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How would you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother? Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you well, good father. [Exeunt severally. benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business. Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the Enter Duke, as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, truth of my spirit. SCENE II.. ·The Street before the Prison. and Officers. Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fear- Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy of it, but that ful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the you will needs buy and sell men and women like sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscar-beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and ried at sea? Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. Duke. Her should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate husband, this well seeming Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonour in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not. Isab. What a merit were it in death, to take this poor maid from the world! What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live! -but how out of this can she avail? Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it. Isab. Show me how, good father. Duke. This fore-named maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point: only refer yourself to this advantage, first, that your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shadow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience: this being granted in course, now follows all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. 2 The maid will I frame, and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it? I Isab. The image of it gives me content already; and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection. Duke. It lies much in your holding up: Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. will presently to St. Luke's; there, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana: At that place call upon me; and despatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly. white bastard. 3 Duke. And you, good brother father: What offence hath this man made you, sir? Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir: for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock, which we have sent to the deputy. Duke. Fye, sirrah, Correction and instruction must both work, Elb. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning. Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be, Free from our faults, as faults from seeming free! steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to't. Duke. He does well in't. Lucio. A little more lenity to wenching would do no harm in him: something too crabbed that way, friar. Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it. we talk of were return'd again: this agent will unpeople the province. Farewell, good friar: I pr'ythee pray for me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays: say, that I said so. Farewell. [Exit. Duke. No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes: What king so strong, Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great But who comes here? kindred; it is well ally'd. Duke. You are pleasant, sir; and speak apace. Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is it in Angelo to take away the life of a man thus? Would the duke that is absent have done this? He knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy. Duke. I never heard the absent duke much Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was, to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the duke had crotchets in him: He would be drunk too; that let me inform you. Duke. You do him wrong, surely. Lucio. Sir, I was an inward of his: a shy fellow was the duke: and I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing. Duke. What, I pr'ythee, might be the cause? Lucio. No, - pardon; ;- 'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand,— The greater file of the subject held the duke to be wise. Duke. Wise? why, no question but he was. Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow. Duke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking; the very stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed3, must, upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own bringings forth, and he shall appear to the envious, a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier: Therefore, you speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darken'd in your malice. Lucio. Sir, I know him, and I love him. Duke. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love. Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know. Duke. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return, (as our prayers are he may,) let me desire you to make your answer before him: If it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your name? Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the duke. Enter ESCALUS, Provost, OVERDONE, and Officers. Escal. Go, away with her to prison. Over. Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted a merciful man : good my lord. Escal. Double and treble adinonition, and still forfeit in the same kind! This would make mercy swear, and play the tyrant.-Away with her to prison: Go to; no more words. [Exeunt OVERDONE and Officers.] Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered; Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation: if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him. Prov. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advised him for the entertainment of death. Escal. Good even, good father. Duke. Bliss and goodness on you! Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is now Escal. What news abroad i' the world? Duke. What pleasure was he given to? Escal. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which profess'd to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous: and let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand, that you have lent him visitation. Duke. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of justice: yet had be Duke. He shall know you better, sir, if I may framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, live to report you. Lucio. I fear you not. Duke. O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm: you'll forswear this again. Lucio. I'll be hanged first thou art deceived in me, friar. But no more of this: I would the duke 4 Clack-dish: The beggars, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to show that their vessel was empty. Guided. many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolved to die. Escal. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor gentleman, to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him, he is indeed-justice. Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his 6 Transgress. proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein, if he chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself. Escal. I am going to visit the prisoner: Fare you well. Duke. Peace be with you! [Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost. He, who the sword of heaven would bear, Should be as holy as severe ; Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, and virtue go; More nor less to others paying, Than by self-offences weighing. Shame to him, whose cruel striking Kills for faults of his own liking! ACT IV. Duke. But shall you on your knowledge find this way? Isab. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't; With whispering and most guilty diligence, In action all of precept, he did show me The way twice o'er. Duke. I have not yet made known to Mariana Re-enter MARIANA. I pray you, be acquainted with this maid; Isab. Duke. Take then this your companion by the hand, Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leisure; but make haste; Will't please you walk aside? And rack thee in their fancies! - Welcome! How agreed? Re-enter MARIANA, and ISABELLA. Duke. Isab. Little have you to say, When you depart from him, but, soft and low, Remember now my brother. Mari. Planked, wooden. 9 Inquisitions, inquiries. Fear me not. 1 Sallies. |